The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1887-11-24
TO MAKE MONEY

things. The lessees pay all of these
expenses and of course pay the wag-
es of the sergeants, guards and "boss-
es." These persons are practically
the employees of the lessees, though
the appointments technically come
from the Board of Control.
Such is the status of those upon
whom the welfare and comfort of the
convicts depend, those who are in con.
slant contact with their daily life, who
issue their daily food, administer the
punishments and direct their work
Practically their allegiance cannot b,
expected to be given to the State in
the sense in which it would exist in
a system where the State had exclu-
sive management of its prison.
There can be
NO RESPONSIBILITY
worthy of the name in this arrange
ment.
kind and humane guards and "bosses,
but we are dealing with the system
and its tendencies and not the peculiar.
tiles of individual character.
The pecuniary interests of all the
employers require the greatest amount
of work at the smallest possible cost
We take humanity as we find it, and
putting down nothing in malice, we
must know that the dominating inter
ests will ultimately make an impress
upon the policy and management OF
this convict business. Lessee sand sub
lessees may be individually humane
persons, but the history of the system
in all the States shows this tendency
in the results of convict leas-
ing.
And sad as the hosiery may be, it is
none tht less true that
UNLIMITED POWER
over the helpless beings is TOO often
marked by cruelty and oppression. 1t
is true that the statutes abound in fine
provisions for the humane treatment
of convicts, but laws do not execute
themselves. 1t is also true that SUI
perintendent is appointed and paid by
the State whose duty it is to inspect
the prison and convict camps. And
so the Board of Control is authorized
to make inspections. But when the
convict camps are widely scattered over
essarily be at long intervals and
for practical purposes Intellectual.
WHO Is THERE
to report the daily current life of the
convict camp, with the griev-
ances between inspections, to this SOL
itary State Superintendent? He has
no official subordinates to do his bid
ding or carry out his orders.
When we face the truth we must
perceive that the physical and moral
life of the convict depends at least up
on the conduct of the people who are
with him daily and hourly, who give
him his food, who direct his work and
order his punishment, who guard him
from escape and who care for him or
neglect him in his sickness. The Oc-
casional dress parade inspection can
not form or regulate his life nor insure
him that modicum of kind treatment
that has cancelled his title to lib
erty.
There is not an hour in the day
when these convicts ought not to be
under the eye of
a SWORN OFFICER
of the State, who has no selfish object
at stake, who holds his trust and whose
compensation comes from the State
and who is responsible alone to
the Government for the fair treatment
OF these prisoners.
In every investigation it is presum
ed that the State is in an attitude advisO-
ry to the lessees whose interests are in
vOlved. The discovery of any cruelty
~ hnS in
at hazard. And thus it is perceived,
that difficulties in the way of a COM
plete knowledge of these matters may
arise i'll any inquiry. Even now in
Georgia the lessees as well as the
State, as the two parties to a con-
tract, are represented by counsel as
the investigation of the infamies of
convict leasing in that State progress.
1t III true the issue is the validity of the
lease, but it is true, behind all that
that the evils of the system are being
brought to light. Nor is it surprise
to intelligent people that cOnvicts
have been subjected to punishment
for
COMPLAINING OF CRUELTIEs.
So it may reasonably be inferred
UildJ eALeuSlNc ulSClOSuTeS are not
to be expected from this source except
upon those rare occasions when some
strong determined Governor makes
real war upon the system.
When we come to examine the ques-
ton of prison reform, it must be adj
mitted that there are some abuses
even under the best State Control,
where every safeguard has been pro-
vided and every selfish influence ex-
Guided. What then can be expected
of this
WHOLE SALE SELLING OUT
of State responsibility to private con-
tractors?
Manifestly the scheme is too crude
for reform, and too full of evils to ad-
NIT of practical amendment. 1t is i'm
possible to resist the conclusion that
the whole thing is fundamentally
wrong presenting, as it does, a battle
for a never ending war between "cu-
pidity and humanity"
In concluding, it will be observed
that there are two other distinct char
acteristics of the leasing system, viz:
An extraordinary may number of
PARDoSS AND ESCAPES.